(no subject)
So, it's been about a week and a half since I've come back from New Orleans. I must say it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had and it's hard to explain to someone if they haven't been there. I already talked about how we gutted houses and talked to owners and we also volunteered at an animal shelter and all of that. But it was so much more than just bashing walls, picking up poop and talking to people during our breaks, although there was a lot of that. What I'll remember more is the people I encountered there and how they were all really interesting in some way. We got to spend a lot of time with everyone, going out at night to see the city of New Orleans with it's history and music and people and bars and buildings. I got surprisingly close to some of the people there, and I hope I'll be able to stay close to them in the future.
I remember one conversation that I had with one girl named Emma. She's 20 years old and decided after high school that she wouldn't know what she wanted to do with her life within the next four year so she wasn't going to go to college quite yet. So she volunteered for 10 months with the Americorps and is now volunteering on her own in New Orleans. She was saying how that was almost looked down on by other people and some of her friends because she wasn't doing what you're supposed to be doing after highschool, you know going to college to get a good job and living that whole American life. The thing your parents want you to do so you can support a family and live "happily ever after". She was doing the things she wanted to do. She said that's she's learned so much more by doing what she's done than she's learned in her entire life and more than she thinks she'd learn at four years of college, because this is real human interaction, this is an opportunity to see how others live, how others face adversity, and how we can help them. It made me realize that we shouldn't be living the way our parents want us to live or society wants us to live, but how we want to live. And often times helping others is how some people want to live, because helping others can satisfy you in a way that nothing else can, and you end up getting more from it yourself than you ever thought you could. And I know that I personally was given so much, so much opportunities to do and be whatever I want, but others weren't given as much, so it just feels good to give back a little and give others that same opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise.
It's times like these I wish I was a little more eloquent so that I could actually express the experience like it should be. So, I'll just show some pictures even though I hardly took any and I wish I took so much more.
The Lower 9th Ward:
This car has just been chillin on its side since the hurricane
You can't see this house because it was completely swept off of its not so existant foundation by the flood. All that's left are the front steps.
The house in this picture appears to be melting
Ghost town
September 9th, 0 bodies found
Toxic Flood Water
Be My Sweetheart
It's really too bad I didn't take more pictures like this because there were so many items that were really striking and told a great deal about the owners of the house without even knowing them. One house that stands out the most was one filled with Asian decor. I wish that I took pictures inside that house. The floor was warped and it seemed as if the house was in a soup of flood water for quite awhile that mixed around and when the water left furniture and other items were just ploped down wherever they happened to be previously suspended. Pillows and paintings were everywhere and the flood line was up to the ceiling. The one thing that struck me the most about that house was a simple house plant. It was sitting at an angle on the kitchen counter and was probably there since before the hurricane. But oddly, it was still alive. Many of it's leaves were withered and brown but some parts were still green and obviously living. I just found it amazing that after a year of neglect and probably days of submersion in toxic water it could still be alive. That little house plant seemed to represent the attitudes of many of the people of New Orleans, determined to come back home and go on with living the way they once had despite of this disaster.
Because even when there's nothing left, there's still so much to look forward to.
I remember one conversation that I had with one girl named Emma. She's 20 years old and decided after high school that she wouldn't know what she wanted to do with her life within the next four year so she wasn't going to go to college quite yet. So she volunteered for 10 months with the Americorps and is now volunteering on her own in New Orleans. She was saying how that was almost looked down on by other people and some of her friends because she wasn't doing what you're supposed to be doing after highschool, you know going to college to get a good job and living that whole American life. The thing your parents want you to do so you can support a family and live "happily ever after". She was doing the things she wanted to do. She said that's she's learned so much more by doing what she's done than she's learned in her entire life and more than she thinks she'd learn at four years of college, because this is real human interaction, this is an opportunity to see how others live, how others face adversity, and how we can help them. It made me realize that we shouldn't be living the way our parents want us to live or society wants us to live, but how we want to live. And often times helping others is how some people want to live, because helping others can satisfy you in a way that nothing else can, and you end up getting more from it yourself than you ever thought you could. And I know that I personally was given so much, so much opportunities to do and be whatever I want, but others weren't given as much, so it just feels good to give back a little and give others that same opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise.
It's times like these I wish I was a little more eloquent so that I could actually express the experience like it should be. So, I'll just show some pictures even though I hardly took any and I wish I took so much more.
The Lower 9th Ward:
This car has just been chillin on its side since the hurricane
You can't see this house because it was completely swept off of its not so existant foundation by the flood. All that's left are the front steps.
The house in this picture appears to be melting
Ghost town
September 9th, 0 bodies found
Toxic Flood Water
Be My Sweetheart
It's really too bad I didn't take more pictures like this because there were so many items that were really striking and told a great deal about the owners of the house without even knowing them. One house that stands out the most was one filled with Asian decor. I wish that I took pictures inside that house. The floor was warped and it seemed as if the house was in a soup of flood water for quite awhile that mixed around and when the water left furniture and other items were just ploped down wherever they happened to be previously suspended. Pillows and paintings were everywhere and the flood line was up to the ceiling. The one thing that struck me the most about that house was a simple house plant. It was sitting at an angle on the kitchen counter and was probably there since before the hurricane. But oddly, it was still alive. Many of it's leaves were withered and brown but some parts were still green and obviously living. I just found it amazing that after a year of neglect and probably days of submersion in toxic water it could still be alive. That little house plant seemed to represent the attitudes of many of the people of New Orleans, determined to come back home and go on with living the way they once had despite of this disaster.
Because even when there's nothing left, there's still so much to look forward to.